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Warhammer Online: My Unbiased Review
abbaba
Member Posts: 1,143
I started following Warhammer Online years ago - as a vet of SWG, WoW, Planetside, AoC and others I've always been looking for the next good MMO with PvP in it. PvP in SWG was great, until the NGE came around. WoW was ok too, but after a year of playing it I guess I got tired of it. AoC was simply not finished.
Anyway, I eagerly awaited the release of WAR and purchased it as soon as I could upon release.
Character Creation
I was impressed by the variety of classes and races available to play. Not since SWG have I enjoyed this variety of character selection - I got really tired of WoW's eight classes. I created a Bright Wizard on the Ostermark server, eager to get away from my damage impaired Paladin from WoW. The customization options are impressive. Not only are there three WoW-like talent trees, there are also morale abilities, tome abilities, and several others. These options make every character seem unique. There is also a vast variety of dyes available so that each character can customize their armor as they see fit. Overall, I give character creation and customization high marks.
9/10
PvE
PvE in WAR has me conflicted. On one hand, there is plenty of content for the solo quester. With three races, and each race having two zones per 10 levels, there is enough content to level up on solo questing alone. However, that obviously gets pretty boring after a while.
Public Quests were fun in moderation. Most of them follow a similar forumula: Kill x number of normal enemies in the first part (usually between 50 and 100), kill x number of minibosses (usually about 10) in the second phase, and then kill the boss in the third phase. These altogether were fun, when I could find a group. Being a player without a guild, I had to rely on open groups, which were few and far between, except for a few hours during primetime, even on my medium pop. server.
My experience with Dungeons was a negative one. I could never find a group to do the Altdorf Sewers, the Order side's level 10-20 dungeon. I only found one group to do Mount Gunbad, the 20-30 dungeon, and that group was a massive 15 player mob that was absolutely no fun to play in. I don't know what it is, but WAR's players don't seem to want to do this content.
On the plus side, there was plenty of content, almost too much, it seemed to spread out the population to an extreme. I encountered only one bugged quest through 26 levels.
6.5/10
Community
The quality of player I encountered was much better than WoW. There weren't any of the sort of players that were so incompetent that they ruined an entire group, like seemed to happen all the time in WoW. This might have something to do with the fact that WAR seems an easier game to play than WoW, but still...it seems that fewer little kids player WAR.
8/10
PvP
Here we come to the meat of the matter - the reason why most people are playing WAR. PvP in WAR at first glance is fun. It is fast paced, and easy to get learn. There is not much of a learning curve at all.
PvP, whether keep sieges, scenarios, or world PvP, is, in my opinion, arcade-like and not compelling. There is rarely a 1v1 test of skill - most of the time, especially in scenarios, PvP is just a meeting of two mobs. The death penalty is so light that there is no adrenaline rush to the fighting.
In the end, I don't really know what it is, but PvP in WAR was just not compelling. If I had to say why, it would be the arcade-like gameplay, the pretty much non-existent death penalty, and the zerg. Don't get me wrong - it's fun to jump in and play a scenario or two, but i can't see myself doing it for months on end like content in a MMORPG should be played. Also, If there are long term gains and goals for PvP in WAR, I haven't heard about them. It's easy to get bored when you aren't playing for any reason.
6.5/10
Crafting
It is my opinion that every good MMORPG must have at least a passable crafting system. Crafting adds another dimension, another thing to do, another thing to accomplish in a MMORPG.
WAR's crafting is, in a word, pathetic. Crafting is limited to potions and add ons to weapons and armor, called talismans. Items have no durability, and never need to be repaired or replaced. WAR's economy is also extremely stunted.
3/10
Graphics, Sound, Performance
The Graphics were very good, much better than WoW's and the game ran well on my computer, unlike AoC. I encountered only a few crashes and only some minor bugs. The game was clearly polished before release *cough* AoC, SWG *cough*. In one bug, the tooltip on one of my abilities was broken. There were a few minor graphics issues. I did not encounter a game breaking bug.
8/10
At present, my Bright Wizard is level 26 and I'm really teetering on the edge of canceling my subscription. It seems like, at level 26, the game is the same as it was at level 10. I don't really feel like I'm progressing. In short, WAR's PvP, the reason I bought the game, is simply not compelling enough to keep me playing. I'm going to wait for the next major content patch, and I'll review the situation from there. If I do decide to cancel, I'll certainly keep track of how things are going and I'll check back in a while.
Hope you enjoyed the review, comments welcome.
Comments
Your review seems spot on.
Only thing I would change would be the " Graphics, Sound, Performance" down to a 6.
No directx 10.1, no 64 bit client, and still no EAX audio function in a game. This is the year 2008, isn't it?
I would say your review is fairly good with the exception of the character creation. Granted there are a lot of classes, but most are just a re-shape of another. Besides that, coming from SWG, you should appreciate what good character creation is, SWG has some of the best with the morphing sliders for all the features. I found WAR's character creation pretty bad with limited choices for character appearence, and horrible looking character models on top of that.
Otherwise good review.
Tried: LotR, CoH, AoC, WAR, Jumpgate Classic
Played: SWG, Guild Wars, WoW
Playing: Eve Online, Counter-strike
Loved: Star Wars Galaxies
Waiting for: Earthrise, Guild Wars 2, anything sandbox.
I think your review was well written, you put obvious thought into it and seem to be objective. I agree with many of your comments, but not necessarily your scores due to semantics:
Character Creation - to me, this literally means creating your character, not customizing it as you progress in levels. In short, you pick the sex, class and look of your character. I agree that the number of classes available from level 1 is pretty impressive, although many of them are variations of each other, mechanically. For example:
At creation, the options to customize your character's looks are decent, but not great. You simply have a list of options from which to select. There aren't any scales for height, weight, color, face shape, etc. All Marauders, Witch Elves and Bright Wizards look like Marauders, Witch Elves and Bright Wizards and always do, regardless of level or gear.
I think your comments regarding ongoing customization are absolutely valid, but they shouldn't necessarily be categorized as Character Creation. In fact, I think ongoing character "building" deserves it's own rating.
Personally, I'd give rate CC as 7.5/10. It's above average, but not great.
PVE - At it's core, the PVE in WAR is pretty much just like PVE in every other game, with two exceptions, both of which you noted:
I'd rate PVE a bit higher than you, based on the inclusion of Open Groups and PQs, but not too much higher, due to the core PVE being pretty generic. 7/10. If Mythic found a way to improve those two aspects I'd rate PVE higher.
Community - "Community" can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Is it the "in-game" community or the greater community of WAR as a whole, including external forums, guild sites, etc? Does it refer to just players or community/social building features like the WAR guild system?
In general, I prefer to think of community as encompassing all of these aspects. From that perspective, WAR has a pretty good "community". Minus an official forum, it has:
While low in-game populations can be disconcerting, the overall community is pretty good. I rate it 8.5/10.
PVP - it's tough for me to rate PVP, because I've only done scenarios in T1 and T2 and have very limited experience in ORvR, due to low server populations/lack of player interest. That being said, I don't think PVP can be rated with one score, unless you:
I definitely like the scenarios in which I've participated, but I do see your points about them, too. I'd conditionally rate PVP 7/10, based on my limited experience. Fun, but not compelling, so far. If Mythic could find a way to get folks out of scenarios and into ORvR, it'd be a lot more fun, I think. For a PVP-centric game, I think it should rate higher, but doesn't.
Crafting - hasn't been compelling enough for me to even try, beyond initial curiosity. Personally, I'm not big into crafting in the first place. As such, I don't feel that I can objectively rate crafting in WAR.
Graphics, Sound and Performance - this, too, is tough to qualify with a single rating. I'd rather see this broken up into:
I'm a firm believer that graphics don't make the game, but they do affect it's overall immersiveness. WAR runs well on my laptop at 1920X1200 resolution, albeit at "fastest framerate" settings. It still looks good enough for me to enjoy playing it. Frankly, I think some players are "graphics snobs" when it comes to technology and style. I do think WAR's graphics could be optimized for better performance, EAX support could be added and the animations could be tuned, but I like the overall "look and feel" of the game. I don't need bleeding edge graphics technology to enjoy the game. As far as I'm concerned, I'd give this very broad category 7.5/10.
So, out of the categories I rate, I rate WAR, on average, 7.5/10. It's a good, solid title, but not outstanding. I'm having fun with it, but I can also see why others haven't been "WoWed" by it.
~Ripper
P.S. I also believe in rating a game based on it's own merits and detriments, per predefined categories, as opposed to rating it based on other games. I think it's a far more objective approach to rate all games per the same criteria, then compare them after the fact, a la "balanced scorecard".
wow, I must say.. one of the better neutral reviews I have seen of this game. He even played a BW about how far I did before I quit.
I would rate CC lower though (6.5 or 7/10),, For your character's look: "One scar or two, sir?" or for gear: "Will you be having the yellow dye or the red dye, sir?" Thats about it. Pretty ho hum. You can get this level of customization in a F2P Asian grinder. It has more than WoW's customization, but thats not really saying all that much there. I think Character creation is different from Character skillset, which you kinda lumped together.
I think you should maybe split the CC up and split off into a different category from character's skills. The skillset seemed to be about to WoW's level, but far worse than Vanguard. Vanguard has way WAY more skills than this game.
But I would say the OP captured the real flavour of this game and its obvious he's not rooting on either side.
Kudos
"TO MICHAEL!"
i would tend agree with everything the reviewer says . its a good game it may not be earthshaking but its a lot of fun essentially a good alternative to warcraft .
well i just puked on my shoes after reading the first paragraph to yet another compare and contrast to WoW. i stopped reading after that. im sure anything else after that had 0 validity. oh and i dont play WoW either.
holy crap its his personal review, not a "please flame me post"
I agree almost completely with the review. i cancelled for the exact same reason, i meant to play till my time was up, but i now find myself foruming other games more.. maybe i grew out of mmo's?
WAR is overall solid. Was it overhyped for years? Unfortunately it was.
Paul Barnett, Jeff Hickman Mark Jacobs and the gang really took the PR of MMO gaming to a new level. I gave me the impression of how extrordinary this game would be. How the classes were so awesome and such. They made some new innovations such as the PQs and loot system, but they ignore item linking in chat?
All the money they were granted by EA I think gave them the ability to launch in three years, I do not deny they worked their tails off. However, I think it could have been more. The rich lore of WAR is skipped over and only learned by a few die hards. All because the system gives the exp rewards for scenarios. Dungeons are empty and there are few calls to epxlore them. Named wandering monsters drop nothing special. Hidden lairs are so well hidden and bosses of lairs drop nothing but a few coins.
Keeps and Battlefield Objective finally mean something other than race pride and some buff boost. Up until recently zones could get locked down with exploits.
Without a serious committed guild with teamspeak or ventrilo, most of your large endeavors such as keep takes usually fail if any defense if put up.
Order is underwhelming unfortunately it seems, by deisgn. Bright Wizards overpopulate most realms because everyone like dps. Shadow Warriors before the patch were underwhelming. Healers are, surprise, always in demand. Forget scenarios nowadays at low levels, you would be lucky to see 1-2 healers at most in a scenario.
I dunno if the Knights will respark interest in Order, but it is a good sign that Mythic is frantically trying to get them online. I do not see a problem with Blackguards going to be rolled. Destro rarely has a problem with filling its servers. How can you not try a hulking damaging soaking Black Orc? A sexy death machine that can go stealth like a Witch Elf? A Disc dancing Magus that used to draw its foes into its death grasp? a morphing Maruder? A pet which you can climb inside like a Squig Herder? Armor Sets like none other in Chaos Chosen? The tough to kill Shaman and Disciple of Khaine (who seem to deliver respectable damage to keep these healers attractive for players)?
Order needs something different than cookie cutter styles. BW nukers, ironbreakers tank but without a healer they fall faster than an orc or chosen without one. Swordmasters seem to fall even faster. Shadow Warriors had potential, but poor dps and same survivablity as a BW makes their playing irritating. Engineers are good and targeted as a result. Order healers are superior, but no one likes to roll them...Warrior Priests require more skill than an average player brings to the game, hence the learning curve and so healers are still in low numbers. White Lions had potential however it seems the lion is less formidable than the squig. Witchhunters also seemed neat at first, but I just don't see them effective in taking down back row casters.
What would make them more attractive to the gamer?
- Unlock the Ogre Bull. Tome Unlock only. Order players who unlock him find a unique race which has a utility role of a Brawler. They have high hps, low damage like a tank, but poor damage mititgation. Mythic could give them fun skills that act like a form a crowd control. Throwing foes across a field (thereby not only breaking channeled casters, but toggling off their abilities for a few seconds. Stuns, Headbutts, Piledrivers like a WWF wrestler that inflict ailments by which other professions can capitialize.
Unlock the Centigor (both factions) - tome unlock only, I see this guy as an improved Shadow Warrior in Assault Mode. Better at short range and with charge attacks that push victims away, stun and perhaps disarm opponents. Melee respectable with dual wielding tomahawks.
If destro cries foul than unlock a Ratman for more strategies that call for traps or perhaps a risky type of plague carrying ability that delivers more damage to others as it is damaged. A potent damage shield so to speak. However it can be specialized so that if damaged from magic, its posioned blood affects all around it..